Atherosclerotic plaques, or lesions, have been known to contribute to the progression of various diseases, including heart attacks, strokes, and peripheral vascular disease, and to the general aging process itself. As atherosclerosis develops and advances in arteries, the arteries become less compliant. One goal in the health care industry has been to diagnose and evaluate atherosclerosis in a cost-effective and non-evasive manner. Presently, B-Mode ultrasound imaging is used to make two-dimensional, cross-sectional representations of an artery, such as the carotid artery. These B-Mode representations provide for visualization of plaques in arterial walls, however, they do not adequately provide for evaluation of any loss of arterial wall compliance. For example, B-Mode representations can be collected and compared over time to show changes to an arterial wall which can indicate loss of arterial wall compliance. Further, the B-Mode representations must be collected and stored over a long period of time, which requires a substantial amount of data storage space and complex software to evaluate these representations.
Accordingly, what is needed is an expedient method for evaluating atherosclerosis and its affect on arterial wall compliance which overcomes the problems found in present non-evasive methods.